Handmade || Homemade || Heartfelt

Category Archives: Festivals

Ganesha Chaturthi is around the corner. The festival of welcoming the elephant God home is celebrated in most parts of India and is especially popular among the people residing on the west coast of the Indian subcontinent.

It is a 10 day long festival, during which Lord Ganesha, the God of wisdom and prosperity, is welcomed to various households. After worshipping his idols for these 10 days, starting with Ganesha Chaturthi, the idols are immersed in water bodies, symbolic that the elephant God fills the house with happiness and prosperity, and takes away all the negativity with Him, only to come back the next year, with the same fervour and the same purpose.

As the air is imbued with the excitement around Ganapati celebrations, the media is already abuzz with articles related to the festival, the best pandal (Read: temporary shrine) in town, the best place to get modaks (Ganesha’s favourite sweet) to offer to Lord Ganesha, the new eco-friendly Ganesha statue, the best Ganesha sand art, Ganapati Goodies, and the list is endless.

While some people around the world find different ways to impress the Lord of Good beginnings and others try to take business advantage from the current buzz around Ganapati celebrations, I express my love and devotion to my favourite Lord through this simple, yet close to my heart painting.

Being an ardent deity of Ganapati, His painting was the first that I made when I picked the paintbrush after years (may be only after the school art classes). This painting is extremely special to me and beautifies one of the walls of the Pooja (Read Prayer) room of my house.

In India, the festive and wedding seasons are around the corner and so is the time for celebrations. And the word celebrations brings with it fun, entertainment, food, dancing, singing, culture specific traditions and rituals, dressing up, decorations, and above all thanking God for all the positivity around with lots of offerings in the form of prayers and fasting. I am sure to have left out a long list of things that are an integral part of Indian traditions apart from the aforementioned ones.

But one thing I personally love and can never forget is the tradition of putting Henna (Mehendi) designs on hands and feet during all these celebrations. Be it weddings or festivals, henna forms an important part of celebrations in the culturally diverse land of India.

Tattooing henna designs is such a craze in India that during festive time a visit to even a local market would expose you to a number of henna artists ready to show their skills on your hands and feet for a charge, of course. In fact, it’s a windfall time for the henna artists around this time.

Even women and girls are near experts when it comes to henna tattooing in many households and can dye hands of family and friends in henna with panache and in no time.

People say that it’s very auspicious for women (even the grooms for their wedding day) to put henna on their hands and feet.

Though, putting henna on hands and feet of women has religious link ups, many elders say that henna can change your fate lines and bring good luck. 🙂

Well, as I grew up I came to realize what it really meant when elders said about the fate changing qualities of henna. They say that our entire life’s fate is written in the lines of our hand and feet. Therefore, for me putting henna is nothing but a way of dyeing your hands and feet in beautiful designs and forgetting about all your troubles for those celebratory moments and enjoying them to the fullest.

It’s also a way of distressing and taking a break from the humdrum tasks (especially during festivities), I believe. The gorgeous designs and the fragrance of henna are relaxing for many. The comparison among girls about whose henna design is the darkest and whose husband loves her most, is a common humour related to henna tattooing among Indian women.

As a kid I remember being super excited around the festive season because Mom would put a new henna pattern on my hands. As we grew up, I and my sisters took to making some henna designs after imitating from magazines and now the Internet. 🙂

I love doing henna designs myself. 🙂 Here are a couple of designs I made for some festivals last year and desperately waiting for this year’s festivals to get down to some henna tattooing.

I know these aren’t the best and there are people who are much better at this. But the idea was to rev up the festive fervour and bring in some feel of celebrations.

Here’s another craft DIY by A Homemaker’s World. This time its candle holders made from glass bangles.

There was this big box of old yet colorful and glittery bangles lying around my home for quite some time. In Indian traditions we consider broken bangles inauspicious for any further use. The bangles I had were a mix of broken and unbroken, yet old ones. So i carefully pulled out the whole ones and disposed off the broken ones.

I really wished to make something bright and colorful with these bangles, so decided to make a few candle holders.

I started by placing 12-15 bangles in a beautiful sequence as is usually worn on hands, a mix of 2-3 colors of bangles and a few glittery ones. I cut a round shaped cardboard to make the base of the candle holders. Next, I started gluing the bangles one on top of another in the sequence I had initially arranged the bangles in. Finally, placed a golden ribbon (Gota Patti) around the base of the holders to enhance its beauty. I let glue of the candle holders dry overnight. And the next morning, the candle holders were ready to be used.

Below are a few images of the candle holders, there illuminating effect, how they enhance the decor of my living room, and there alternative use as well. Take a look!

Colorful and Glittery Glass Bangles Candle Holders

Colorful and Glittery Glass Bangles Candle Holders

Candle Holder with Candle/Wax Diya

Lit Up Candle Creating the Beautiful Illuminating Effect

Beautiful Decor for Living Rooms or Side Tables

Beautiful Decor for Living Rooms or Side Tables

Beautiful Decor for Living Rooms or Side Tables

Alternate Use of Glass Bangles Holder – Multi-Purpose 🙂

I loved making these holders as they are being used not only as candle holders, but as multi-purpose article holders in my home. They look beautiful kept as center pieces and on side tables, and go perfectly with the traditional Indian decor of my home.

These can be made using old or new bangles. I am planning to make few more for my home, especially around the Diwali time when diyas and candles take center stage at Indian homes. Therefore, to avoid the mess of oil and wax spills , these beautiful candle/diya holders will work just fine.